The 20-year-old Saginaw Spirit captain will leave for Salzburg, Austria, in a couple of weeks and will attempt to earn a spot on a professional hockey team that calls Austria's fourth-largest city home.

EC Red Bull Salzburg is part of the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga, also known as the Austrian Hockey League. Red Bull is one of eight teams in the league.

McDonough reports on Monday, July 28, beginning a tryout camp that will continue until the end of August.

"I'll leave three or four days in advance of the start of the camp," McDonough said via telephone from his home in Toronto. "I can't wait to get there and start training. Summer's been too long."

Red Bull is the reigning Austrian League champ with former National Hockey League head coach Pierre Page calling the shots for the team. Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz is the team owner, the same Mateschitz who made his money selling Red Bull energy drink around the world.

McDonough caught the eye of Page while scoring 45 goals and adding 44 assists for 89 points for the Spirit last season as a 19-year-old.

"They contacted me," McDonough said. "One of his (Page's) connections here (in North America) saw me last season. Once they contacted me, they came to my house to get me to go there.

"They told me they want to develop me as a player and help me one day get to the National Hockey League."

"Ryan is a proven goal-scorer and is also an extremely quick player," Page said. "The tryout phase finishes at the end of August, whereupon a decision will be made as to a possible extension of his contract for the remainder of the season."

McDonough thought long and hard about heading to Europe instead of returning to Saginaw.

"It was a hard decision to make, but I just thought it would be better for my development as a player," McDonough said. "I'll be playing against bigger and stronger players than I'd see in the OHL.

"What will I make? I'm not going to talk about all the details, but let's just say it's a lot more than a lot of people my age."

McDonough isn't joining just any organization. He signed a contract to play for one that owns a Major League Soccer team, a Formula One race car and is involved in NASCAR. In fact, Page told the Edmonton Journal, Red Bull is on the verge of purchasing an NHL franchise.

Spirit General Manager Don Edwards wishes McDonough well with Red Bull, but the organization hasn't completely shut the door to welcoming him back for the coming season.

"He's got to decide whether he wants to come back or not based on what happens there but, of course, we'd like to have him back," Edwards said. "It's always a situation with over-age guys where you never know whether they will go to school, find a professional team or come back.

"We had ongoing dialogue with his agent. We knew for some time he might end up in Austria. We had him a tryout for five or six NHL teams and he still might end up in one of those camps, you never know."

McDonough agreed he hasn't completely slammed the door shut on the Spirit.

"Of course, you never know what's going to happen," McDonough said when asked if he'd ever consider coming back to Saginaw.

But if McDonough doesn't return from Salzburg, the Spirit simply will move on.

"We have depth in the organization, plus the addition of the two imports gives us some good talent to work with," Edwards said. "We have some plans (when it comes to the overagers) and we'll just move forward on them if Ryan doesn't return."

So, as it stands right now, the Spirit have three overagers on the roster who are expected to return to Saginaw for the start of the 2008-09 Ontario Hockey League season. But even that number isn't set in stone.

Jack Combs, Ryan Daniels and Chris Chappell are the 1988-born players who can return to play as 20 year olds. All three are NHL free agents, and Edwards said the Spirit worked to secure tryouts at NHL camps for the trio.

Of the three, Chappell is the only one who is a lock to return to Saginaw. Combs could earn himself a free-agent contract and end up in the East Coast Hockey League, and Daniels is in the same boat.

But if I had to guess, Combs and Chappell will don a Spirit uniform this year. Daniels, however, is as good as gone either this summer or during the season whenever Saginaw can get the most value for him in a trade.

Mark Constantine is a sports writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9769 or mconstantine@thesaginawnews.com.